Monkeypox is spreading in Europe. Here's what we know about her

In the EU countries began to record cases of infection with monkeypox. This rare zoonotic viral infection is transmitted by contact and airborne droplets, including from various animals to humans.

In most cases, its incubation period lasts from 6 to 16 days, but can stretch up to 21 days. The infected person develops a fever and a rash that causes painful itching. Most often, the disease proceeds in a fairly mild form and disappears in two to three weeks. Mortality from monkeypox ranges from 1% to 10%.

• The first European case was confirmed May 7 in a man who returned to England from Nigeria, where monkeypox is endemic.
• Since then, Portugal has registered 14 cases and Spain has confirmed 7. The United States, Sweden and France also recorded one case each. Italian authorities have confirmed one case and suspect several more.
• No cases of monkeypox have been recorded in Russia, confirmed Rospotrebnadzor. However, in order to prevent the importation of the virus at the border, sanitary and quarantine control measures are being strengthened.
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An unusual spike in cases outside of Africa could signal new ways of spreading or change in the virus, said Ann Rimouin, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His colleague from England added:

Currently, there is no separate vaccine for monkeypox, but antiviral agents developed for the treatment of ordinary smallpox (for orthopoxvirus infections) are used for prevention.

The virus was first isolated in 1958 from sick laboratory monkeys in Copenhagen. A human disease was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2003, there was also an outbreak in the United States with 71 cases of infection - rodents from a pet store imported from Ghana served as peddlers.